


By the Light of the Bridge

by goingtothetardis



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bad Wolf, Doomsday Month, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Fluff, Meddling TARDIS, Prompt Fic, Reunion, TARDIS Rooms, The TARDIS - Freeform, doctorroseprompts, doomsday fixit, fixit, mystery reunion, travel between universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingtothetardis/pseuds/goingtothetardis
Summary: When Rose convinces Pete to give her the dimension hopper when they land safely in his universe, she never in a million years expects the path that is placed before her.





	1. Bridge

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome, Friends! Look! I have written a story that is longer than a ficlet! _GASP!_ My muse has arisen from the dark, dank pits of writer's block hell and has provided me with the words for this story. 
> 
> It is that month. Doomsday Month. A cursed month about a cursed episode. But fear not. I provide you with a much needed fixit for said cursed episode. The Doctor and Rose will never remain separated under my watch. NEVER. I give you my word. 
> 
> A while back, Doctorroseprompts shared a prompt someone sent: [“I can’t believe you’re back here.” With a Doomsday reunion, please?] That prompt, Doomsday month, and another prompt from Zoebelle9 [Skeleton key], gave me the ingredients to write this story. 
> 
> A huge thank you to Hellostarlight20 who helped brainstorm this with me for several weeks and then provided beta services!! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> ALSO. [LOOK AT THIS ART](http://promisedyouforever.tumblr.com/post/175825353370/totally-unsolicited-ficart-for-goingtothetardiss) PROMISEDYOUFOREVER MADE FOR ME!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flinging open her eyes, she blinks at the sudden existence of something other than the oppressive darkness, and finds a golden path laying in front of her

As she slams into Pete, Rose cranes her head around to cast one last gaze upon the Doctor. The image of his face, contorted with terror and agonized panic, sears itself into her memory forever.

And then he’s gone.

Rose and Pete land in a inelegant heap in the same white room, a universe away. As she pulls herself away from Pete, an unearthly sob rips from her chest, and she rolls to her knees and heaves, losing the remnants of her last meal.

“Rose! You’re safe! Oh god, Pete, you saved her!” Jackie runs over to Rose and pulls her into an emotional embrace, but her voice is simply background noise as Rose squeezes out of her arms and crawls over to Pete.

“Give it to me!” she screams, holding out her hand. “Give me that!” She claws through the air at the hopper, still around Pete’s neck.

“Rose, you can’t!” Mickey runs over from one of the computer consoles and grabs her shoulders, trying to pull her away from Pete. “It’s almost closed. You don’t know what will happen!”

“I don’t care! I have to go, _I have to. I promised him forever. Please, Pete, _please!”_ Rose, with tears streaming down her cheeks, glares between the three of them and lingers a moment longer on her mum. _

A brief awareness of understanding passes between them, love and pain and loss and acceptance all at once, and Jackie turns to Pete. “Give it to her.”

As Pete passes over the device, Rose tucks her head down to place the cord around her neck, and with a quick flick of her gaze between her mum and Mickey, she says, “Love you,” then slams her hand down on the button.

* * *

In an instant, darkness envelops her, and for a brief moment, the overwhelming sense of nothingness makes it hard to breathe. Rose screams, her voice the only thing tethering her to reality. Terrified of losing her sense of existence in this emptiness, she frantically pats herself down, slowly taming her panic as she feels her trousers, her jumper, the hopper around her neck, and her TARDIS key pressed between her breasts.

Using a breathing technique the Doctor had shown her long ago while climbing through some narrow caves, Rose regains control of her mind, forcing herself to focus on her surroundings and how to get out of this place.

It’s dark whether or not she closes her eyes, but she does it anyway, finding the movement natural as she focuses her mind.

There’s nothing but silence in the space around her, but strangely, it’s not at all like the cold and unforgiving Void the Doctor had described. There’s a part of her that inexplicably knows she hasn’t sent herself into the same hellish nothingness they’d just sent the hoards of Daleks and Cybermen.

It’s nothing, but it’s not unpleasant. Of course, she wants to get out as soon as possible and find her way home, but what she feels inside this… place… this curious existence… is nothing like those soulless tendrils of darkness that she’d felt lapping at her heels as the Void sucked in the creatures intent on destroying the universe.

Rose moves her body and imagines herself standing upright. Perhaps she is. It feels like she is.

Opening her eyes, she’s immediately struck with the clutching grip of claustrophobia and clenches her eyes shut. No, she can’t stay here in this nowhere space. It’s too calm and empty, and the acute lack of any sensation will drive her to insanity if she stays here much longer.

Rose focuses inward and imagines the Doctor, reaches out to him with her mind in a way that she’d only just learned to do while connecting their minds telepathically. Finding nothing, she reaches further and attempts to connect with the familiar hum of the TARDIS that had, until being torn from her universe, been ever present in her mind since… well, since she opened Her heart and did whatever she did to save the Doctor.  

It’s little surprise to her that she can’t feel or sense the Doctor, but the TARDIS… Rose digs deeper with her mind and her thoughts, calling out for the TARDIS, searching for… Yes. There.

A dim golden light pulses gently in the depths of her mind, one tiny flicker of light to catch her attention, and Rose surges forward, focusing all her mental energy around it.

The light glows brightly for a moment, and Rose hears the echo of a song she’s certain she knows but can’t quite place. As she falls to her knees in relief, the song grows stronger and stronger in her mind, and suddenly, something golden flares in front of her, bright enough to filter through her closed eyelids.

Flinging open her eyes, she blinks at the sudden existence of something other than the oppressive darkness, and finds a golden path laying in front of her. Standing up quickly, she looks down at her body, relieved to find herself in one piece _,_ and starts walking. The song continues in her mind, and it pulls her onward, forward toward whatever mystery awaits.

* * *

Rose loses track of time. Determined to not lose hope, she thinks of the path in front of her as a bridge back to her universe, to her home with the Doctor on the TARDIS. In an effort to keep her wits, she relives past adventures, starting with her first Doctor, the one who had first stolen her heart and shown her the infinite magnitude of the universe.

She smiles, remembering the blue eyes that made her shiver from something more than a chill more than once; remembering the way his goofy smile lit up the space around her, making her feel like all was right, even if chaos was raining down around them; remembering the way his arms felt wrapped around her, when he lifted her up in a bone crushing hug.

 _God,_ she misses him, her first Doctor. And now her new new Doctor. Him. Just him, the Doctor. _All of him._ Blue eyes, brown eyes, it didn’t matter after a while. She only ever saw the daft alien she loves.

Rose flexes her hand at her side, wishing desperately for his hand in hers. It’d been a natural instinct to reach for his hand since the moment he’d first taken hers and told her to run. Blinking rapidly, Rose forces the tears back and continues on her journey.

* * *

It happens when she least expects it, when the steady repetition of one foot in front of the other is all she knows. Deep in her memories, the only thing tethering her to sanity, Rose runs face first into a solid surface.

Yelping in shock, she jumps back and blinks rapidly, trying to focus her gaze in front of her. She’d failed to notice the golden path’s abrupt end. Despite the blackness in front of her, Rose reaches out to find the surface she’d just connected with, and her hand lands on a surface that feels like… wood? No… She knows it, she realizes, and has felt it under her fingertips countless times before.

_The TARDIS?_

Her heartbeat thrumming in her chest, Rose splays her hands over the surface, searching for something, anything to get her out of this suffocating darkness, and _there!_

“Ah!” she cries out, her voice glaringly loud in the silence. Beneath her fingertips is a small latch, and she fiddles with it until it clicks and swings open.

Rose gasps in shock as the door opens to reveal a small room and blinks rapidly as her eyes adjust to the dim light. For a brief moment, she hesitates in the doorway. Looking back over her shoulder, she studies the golden path, and despite the emptiness of it, it’d been safe.

Safe but not home. It offered nothing except a path forward, and with a decisive nod, recommitting to her decision to leave Pete’s universe and her mother behind, Rose steps through the door and closes it behind her.

Rose refocuses on the room around her and breathes in deeply. The welcoming presence of the TARDIS immediately fills her mind, and she gasps, staggering forward at the onslaught of sensations. Falling to her knees, she feels the steady hum of the beloved timeship beneath her fingers. It’s further confirmation that not only is she home in her original universe, she’s on the TARDIS, of all places.

Somehow.

Impossibly so.

As she calms her breath, Rose takes a moment to look around. It’s a small room, rather bland and nondescript, much like her original room on the TARDIS. In one corner sits a squat little chair, the deep green velvet upholstery well worn and obviously much loved, and next to it a small end table holding a tiny object.

Standing up, Rose looks down her body and finds herself unchanged, wearing the same clothes she’d worn during the battle. Her breath quickens as the memories of her last moments with the Doctor crash through her mind, and it’s suddenly of the utmost importance that she find him and announce her return.

As she rushes forward to the door opposite the one she’d just entered, Rose’s gaze focuses on the object sitting on the table. It’s an ornate skeleton key, the end of which boasts a design similar to the circular symbols she’s seen all around the TARDIS’s center console. It’s a curious thing, as she’s fairly certain she’s never seen the Doctor use such a key for anything on his ship, save for the one they use to get inside. As her thumb brushes over the circular symbol, a translation of the meaning flashes brightly in her mind.

_Bad Wolf._

Rose almost drops the key in surprise, then grips it tightly as she reaches out with her mind to the TARDIS. It’s something she’s never done before, but right now, in this moment filled with a heady cocktail of emotions, seeking comfort from the ship feels right, like it’s finally time to do so.

The TARDIS responds with a calming pulse of affection, soothing the fear and uneasiness about the return of Bad Wolf. There’s also the sense that the ship thinks she should be elsewhere.

Right. Time to find the Doctor.

* * *

Rose sprints down the corridor, running her fingers along the wall as she goes as it intensifies her connection with the TARDIS and further reminds her that she’s _home._

When the TARDIS finally guides her to the console room, Rose slows to a stop, looking around desperately for the Doctor. He’s not there. But it’s clearly where the TARDIS wants her to be. For a moment, she considers leaving to find him, but she has no idea _when_ she’s returned. For all she knows, it may not be immediately after Canary Wharf. Her time in the, well, wherever she’d been had passed outside of the normal passing of time, and suddenly it occurs to her that it may have been months, perhaps _years_ since the Doctor had lost her.

She paces around the console, allowing the pulse of the rotor to soothe the panic coursing through her veins. Really, she just needs the Doctor, to see the Doctor, and everything will be okay.

Beyond the mystery of her own return and the key, there are things she needs to tell him, things she’s kept buried for so long in order to protect the Doctor. But no more. Nope. She can’t wait another moment.

 


	2. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor steps inside the TARDIS and immediately feels the soothing waves of welcome from his ship, a balm to his shattered soul. Strangely, She’s not distressed, and despite the fact that _of course She does,_ he wonders if She knows about Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnd here's the second chapter! I've so appreciated all your comments on the first chapter! I hope this one continues to provide a nice little twist to their reunion. ;) 
> 
> Thanks again to Hellostarlight20 for the beta and advice. 
> 
> This chapter is from the Doctor's POV, so it starts out quite angsty.

The moment the Void seals, the Doctor falls to the floor, the forces within no longer pulling his body toward  _ that _ particular nightmare. 

Instead, he’s left in the timeline that had haunted his nightmares for months, since their run-in with the Beast and the black hole. The storm had come to fruition and had taken away the one who meant more to him than a lifetime of adventures. 

Rose. 

She’s gone, saved in the last moment by Pete, yes, but still gone. No longer in this universe. No longer at his side, looking up at him with that tongue-in-teeth smile that drives him mad with desire and… No. He won’t think it, now. 

She’s gone. 

His hearts hammer in his chest, drowning out all other sound as raw panic churns through his mind. He curls in on himself on the floor as he struggles to breathe, the magnitude of his loss crushes his hearts. Rose had made him whole again, had glued the broken pieces of his soul back together, and now… She’s gone.

The Doctor feels her loss acutely, as if one of his hearts had been forcibly removed from his chest. They’d only recently shifted their relationship to a more intimate one, one in which they’d been able to explore each other on a basic telepathic level as he taught Rose more about how to control her mind, and now… Not only is one of his hearts gone, but he feels the acute loss of her lingering presence in his mind. They hadn’t bonded, not yet, but she’d been in his mind enough to make a place for herself, one he realizes had been a terribly stupid move on his part. 

He should have known better. 

But Rose… He’d been helpless to resist, and now look at him. A heap of pathetic pinstripes on the ground. 

With painstaking control, the Doctor closes off the portion of his mind throbbing with the loss of Rose and swallows back the bile that’s threatened to escape since Rose’s fall. As he stands, he does his best to slip on his well practiced mask of indifference, refusing to let any survivors see his pain and grief. 

No, that will happen later on the TARDIS, the one place he has difficulty maintaining his shields. He dreads his return already despite his desire to seek comfort from his ship. 

The Doctor clears his throat and walks to the despised white wall at the end of the room. He places his hand against it for a brief second, searching outward with his mind for Rose’s telepathic signature, before letting his arm fall to his side. He finds nothing, confirming the knowledge that the Void has already sealed tight, and turning, he walks out of the room without a second glance. 

* * *

Torchwood is a ghost town, with the usual casualties of war scattered about the facility. He ignores it all with a cold sort of detachment, refusing to spend one more second dealing the carnage that took Rose away from him. He numbs himself to the sights and sounds around him and sighs in relief when he finds the TARDIS stuck in a dark corner in the warehouse.

There’s clear signs of tampering around her door, which almost makes him grin in vindication when he knows how frustrated Yvonne Hartman must have been when her soldiers couldn’t get inside. The feeling passes quickly, however, and he takes a deep breath as he sticks his key into the lock and turns. 

The Doctor steps inside the TARDIS and immediately feels the soothing waves of welcome from his ship, a balm to his shattered soul. Strangely, She’s not distressed, and despite the fact that  _ of course She does, _ he wonders if She knows about Rose. 

Letting his facade fall slightly, he turns toward the console, blinking in stunned shock when Rose jumps around from the opposite side with a delighted smile. 

“Rose…?” His mind shorts for a moment as he struggles to explain her presence, the utter impossibility of it, but his thoughts are interrupted when a blonde force of nature hurls herself into his arms, making him stumble back against the door he’d only just shut behind him.

“Doctor! Oh, you’re finally here, I’ve been so worried. I didn’t want to leave and you not know I’m here, and–  _ Oh God, _ you’re back. I’m back, Doctor, I’m back.” Her voice, thick with emotion, babbles against his neck, and the Doctor struggles to catch up.

She feels the same pressed against him, and his hands move instinctively to hold her close, reacquainting themselves with her body. She sounds like Rose, feels like her, and that soft presence brushing gently against his mind… 

The Doctor squeezes his eyes shut and takes a deep, ragged breath, trying to sort out his chaotic thoughts. She’s… back? But she’d… Pete had… He’d  _ seen  _ the man grab her around the middle and vanish, the act of which had provided a sliver of comfort with her loss. But now… She’s here and in his arms, and with all his experience and knowledge in his impressive Time Lord brain, he’s more than a little out of sorts, his firm control on the status quo of the universe and the way it works slipping in his doubt. 

Rose, as if sensing his tension, untwists herself from his body and slides down to the floor, her feet hitting the grating. Giving him some space, she steps back and stares searchingly into his eyes, gasping when he’s certain she’s found the raw grief and brokenness still clearly visible there. 

“You’ve only just come back, haven’t you?” she asks softly, lifting a hand to chew on a thumbnail. 

Finally, his brain catches up with his thoughts, and he manages a sentence. “Rose… Is it– Is it really you?” 

It can’t be. She’s an imposter, an illusion, something not real. It’s the only explanation his mind provides him. 

A tear leaks from one eyes as she steps closer to him and places a hand on his cheek, a few fingers resting gently on his temple. With a furrow on her forehead, she very carefully opens her mind up to his and allows him to feel  _ her.  _ That, more than anything,  _ finally  _ convinces him of her presence. That this Rose is actually  _ his _ Rose. But still, his mind insists on questioning the facts.

“Not that I’m not… Well... I can’t believe you’re back here.” He clears his throat, which had thickened with emotion, and he tries again, realizing how stupid his words must have sounded. “Rose. How are you here, exactly?”

The corner of Rose’s lips lift up slightly, as though she’s amused at his inability to express himself directly, but she quickly sobers. “I’m… not quite sure, exactly. An’ I’ll tell you, but first, well… I never got a chance to tell you before, and I thought I’d lost the chance forever.” She takes a deep breath. “I love you, Doctor. I love you so much.”

She stares meaningfully into his eyes, and the beats of his hearts quicken as his entire body warms with overwhelming love for this woman. Hearing words he’d once thought so impossible from the woman he’d thought he’d lost forever makes him realize how stupid he’d been to hold them back from her himself. The Doctor pushes a few strands of hair from her forehead and leans down to brush his lips against her ear. 

“I love you, too, Rose Tyler,” he says, relieved to finally set free the words he’d held back for so long free.

When her lips crash against his and their minds buzz joyfully against each other, the Doctor can’t find it in him to do anything but return her passion with unrestrained abandon. Had it really only been moments before that he’d once more been the broken shell of himself? 

A few minutes of rather  _ brilliant _ snogging later, the Doctor pulls back and presses his forehead against Rose’s. “As much as I’d love to continue, I still need to know how you came back.” 

Rose smiles and rolls her eyes, clearly predicting his need for answers. Looking past him to the door, she grimaces. “Maybe we should leave first, then maybe get a cuppa and talk in the library? Can you wait a few more minutes for answers?”

The Doctor agrees, wanting nothing more than to get as far as he possibly can from this place, and stalks up the ramp with renewed purpose. Within moments, the TARDIS is leaving Canary Wharf, and the Doctor feels some of the last remaining tension lift from his shoulder as they return to the Vortex. He and Rose both release a sigh of relief. 

“Library?” Rose asks, and he nods in agreement. 

* * *

Several minutes later, they’re settled into their favorite sofa in the library. Two cups of tea sit forgotten to the side as Rose curls into his side. He’s loathe to be away from her, now, so soon after losing her, and he waits as patiently as he can (which isn’t a lot) for her to speak.

“I’m not sure how I ended up back here,” Rose says, breaking the expectant silence between them. “I… When Pete and I landed in his universe, I  _ had _ to get back to you. I made him give me the hopper, an’ Mum, she…” Rose pauses here, and she raises a hand to wipe away what he assumes is tears. “She understood what I had to do and told him to give me the hopper. I knew I didn’t have much time, so I pressed it straight away, and I ended up, well– I’m not sure where it was.”

“How do you mean?” He gently pulls himself away from Rose and adjusts his seat so he’s facing her on the sofa. 

“At first I thought I was in the Void, but except for the darkness pressing in, I wasn’t scared. For a while, there was nothing, an’ then I started thinking about you and trying to find your mind, an’ when that didn’t work, I tried the TARDIS.” 

“The TARDIS?”

“Yeah, I dunno, I kept searching for Her with my mind, an’ then this golden path – maybe a bridge – appeared in front of me. So I just followed it. There wasn’t anything else to do. There was a song, too,” Rose adds, eyes brightening as she remembers. 

“A song?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it before, somewhere. It… helped keep me calm. I could see the path, but God, the darkness was… so dark.” Rose shrugs, clearly unable to exactly define where she’s been. 

“So how’d you get here?”

“I don’t know how long I walked, exactly, but I literally ran into a door. Was thinkin’ about you, past you and this you, tryin’ to distract myself from the darkness, and then I ran into a door. I opened it and… I was on the TARDIS.” 

The Doctor runs his hand through his hair and ruffles it, completely perplexed. “But  _ how?” _

Rose shrugs again. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen the room before, and there was only a chair, a table, and oh! This key.” She digs in her pocket for a moment before pulling out an unfamiliar key and holds it out for him to take. 

The Doctor studies the unfamiliar key before focusing on the circular Gallifreyan symbol at the end.  _ “Bad Wolf,” _ he murmurs, and his blood turns to ice in his veins. 

Rose nods. “Yeah. Bad Wolf.”

“You can read this?” he asks, astounded, not sure if he should bother being surprised about anything anymore. 

“Seems so.” 

The Doctor sits back against the arm of the sofa, absentmindedly twirling the key between his fingers. His mind races over all the information Rose has just given him, and he sorts through it, trying to process everything. He first decides to focus on Rose’s decision to leave Jackie.

“Rose, your mum. You left Jackie. And Mickey,” he adds as an afterthought. “Are you sure?” 

Rose glares at him and crosses her arms. “Look, they’re fine. Or they will be. Yes, it’s hard and I’ll miss her, but I think Mum knew I’d always choose you in the end. I promised you I’d never leave you, Doctor, an’ I’m planning to keep my promise of forever as long as I can. ‘Sides, there’s no going back, now.”

The Doctor swallows, willing himself  _ again _ to believe and accept Rose’s words. She’s already done the impossible by returning to him not once, but  _ twice, _ so maybe it’s time he stopped fighting it. 

“Yeah, okay,” he answers with a soft smile. “But I am sorry you won’t see your mother again, Rose.”

Her eyes get misty for a second and she reaches for his hand. “Me, too. But she’ll be okay. I saw the way Pete looked at her, an’ Mum– She’ll get through anything.” 

“That Jackie Tyler, she’s a fighter.” The Doctor squeezes her hand. 

They sit quietly together for several minutes as the Doctor focuses on the mechanics of Rose’s return. 

“This room,” he says, finally. “Where is it?”

Rose thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure. Can’t you ask the TARDIS to show us?” 

He asks, and the TARDIS shows him the way in his mind. Without wasting another second, he stands up and reaches for Rose, allowing a bit of his previous enthusiasm to return. “Allons-y?” 

“Lead the way,” Rose says with a laugh.

* * *

They walk through the corridors hand in hand, and finally, the Doctor stops outside a door he’s never noticed before.

“That’s odd,” he murmurs to himself, then reaches inside his pocket for the key. 

It doesn’t work, and the Doctor frowns. Rose tries the handle, and it swings wide open. He looks at her, and she shrugs before walking over the threshold before him. He follows, and together they inspect the room. It’s as she’d explained: only a green velvet chair he’d enjoyed in one of his earlier incarnations and a small table beside it. On the opposite side of the room is a door, and Rose eyes it warily. 

“Shall we?” He holds up the key. 

“Doctor, I don’t know… What if it pulls us in and we can’t get out?” 

“I don’t think it will, Rose, but I’ll be careful,” he promises, but when he notes Rose worrying her lip, he elaborates further. “You were able to leave that nothing space, and as you said, you stepped off the path and into the TARDIS. I know my TARDIS, Rose, and She’ll never let anything remove us without our consent.” 

Stepping over to the door, he fits the key inside the keyhole and turns. The door clicks open and reveals a golden path, just as she’d described. Even without setting foot over the threshold, he senses the oppressiveness of the place, the heaviness of the darkness. He can’t explain it in any way, but it’s right there in front of him, clear as day. 

“Do you hear it?” Rose asks, stepping closer and kneeling down. She reaches through the doorway and touches the golden surface, seeming to forget her earlier apprehension about seeing this space again. As soon as she touches the surface, the haunting singing he remembers from when Rose had appeared in front of him as the Bad Wolf sings inside his mind.

“But this is impossible,” he says, staring in disbelief at the golden path, bridge, or whatever one wanted to call it. 

“Yeah, it is,” Rose agrees, looking up at him before standing. “But it happened.”

The Doctor thinks, sending questions to his ship who remains suspiciously vague in Her answers. 

“I didn’t know about this room,” he says.

“Do you know about  _ all  _ the rooms on the TARDIS?” Rose asks.

“No, but this sort of thing shouldn’t be possible. A bridge to another universe? Sure, before the Time War specific travel between universes was possible, but when I lost you,” he pauses, the memory still sharp, “I didn’t think there was any way to get you back. And now there’s a bridge I knew nothing about? On my own ship, no less.”

Rose worries her bottom lip as she considers his words. “Do you think we can go back and see mum?” 

The Doctor gives Rose a sidelong glance. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. The bridge hasn’t disappeared, but there’s no portal on the other end. And your hopper burned out, that particular mechanism is dead.” He kicks at the burned out hopper Rose had discarded on the floor.

“I’m not expecting to see her again, but… I sorta expected the bridge to be gone, too.” 

“I think we need more answers, and I know just the place to go. Come on, Rose Tyler. You’ll love it. I’ve never showed you before.” He walks toward the door they’d come in minutes before and waits as Rose closes the portal door and pockets the key. 

The Doctor guides her deep inside the TARDIS, excited to show her one particular part of his ship that without which, there is no TARDIS. The walk for ages, discussing various possibilities and theories regarding Rose’s return, before he finally stops in front of one door. 

He draws a line down the middle of the door, and the locking mechanisms move in response to his touch. 

Rose laughs in delight. “That’s very Harry Potter, that,” she says, referring to a lock from one of the movies in her timeline. 

“That’s me,” he answers, clicking his tongue. “Part Time Lord, Part Wizard.”

Her answering laugh fades when he opens the door and reveals the sight inside. 

 


	3. Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an instant, Rose understands everything. She remembers her time as Bad Wolf, the things she’d done in her past, present, and future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been pretty excited about this idea for a few weeks. To be honest, I can't even remember what gave me the idea for this particular plot element with the architectural reconfiguration system, but I may have seen it somewhere on Tumblr or Doctorroseprompts. Even post-RTD episodes are generally not my thing, there were certain elements that occasionally intrigued me, and this particular room on the TARDIS was one of those. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter!! Just a fluffy epilogue to go!!
> 
> Thanks again to Hellostartlight20 for the beta!!

“This is the architectural reconfiguration system,” the Doctor explains, and she dimly registers his words as she stares at what lies inside the room. 

In the center of the room is a giant tree, but it’s not a tree in the traditional sense of the word. Thousands of glowing bulbs hang from what appears to be a mass of cables twisting up the base of the tree and extending on branches. As she steps inside the room to investigate closer, she realizes it’s not cables and is actually an organic extension of the TARDIS. Vines of some sort hold the bulbs. They emit a haunting blue and white glow that mesmerizes her from the moment she sets her gaze on the tree. 

“It’s… beautiful,” she breathes, unable to tear her gaze from the tree. “What is it?”

The Doctor follows Rose inside, and she finally breaks her gaze with the tree, waiting for an answer. “It reconstructs particles to fit your needs. Or my needs. Or anyone’s needs. It’s a machine that makes machines.”

Rose frowns, trying to comprehend the Doctor’s explanation. 

“So it’s sorta like the Room of Requirement?” She smirks. “You’re  _ so _ Harry Potter.”

The Doctor grins. “Hmm, never thought about it like that before. Yeah, I suppose it’s something like the Room of Requirement.” He walks over to the tree and gently touches one of the bulbs. “Each bulb is a room on the TARDIS, and she’s capable of configuring each one according to the needs of the inhabitant.”

Rose brightens with understanding. “So that’s why my walls turned light pink after travelin’ with you for a few weeks. The TARDIS sensed that I was homesick, so she made my room what I needed it to be?” 

“Yeah!” The Doctor nods enthusiastically. 

With a smirk, Rose steps over to the Doctor’s side. “An’ that’s why you have your own banana grove, yeah?”

“Bananas are good, Rose. Every ship needs a banana grove.” The Doctor sniffs in haughty self-assurance. 

“Oh, you’re full of it, you are,” Rose laughs, nudging his arm with hers. The reason for arriving in this room strikes her suddenly. “Is that why we’re here? To find the orb that goes with the room?”

The Doctor nods absently as his eyes roam over the tree.

“There’re a lot, yeah. Can you tell them apart?”

The Doctor sighs. “Nope.”

Rose leaves his side and wanders around the enormous tree, understanding that the real science behind how this tree works is well beyond her grasp of knowledge. But the Doctor’s explanation had made enough sense, and she chews her lip in thought as she searches for a bulb that might belong to the room she stepped through from one universe to the next. 

The tree’s branches are lush and full, and orbs hang all around her, making Rose feel like she’s floating among stars. It’s magical, and even though she knows she’s in a place full of machinery, it doesn’t feel like it. 

Walking further under the tree, she looks up and around, trying to differentiate one orb from the others. It’s an impossible task, however, so she satisfies herself with the assumption that the Doctor will figure it out, and simply enjoys their time in the room. 

A glint of gold catches her attention out of the corner of her eye and, looking around for the Doctor and not finding him near, she moves toward the bulb in question. Unlike the other ones, it’s the familiar gold of her bridge, and Rose stares at it, entranced. It pulls her in, like she’s meant to touch it, but before doing so, she calls out to the Doctor. 

“Doctor, I found something!”

Moments later, he appears at her side, and whistles in surprise. 

“Something tells me you found our orb, Rose.” The Doctor reaches out to touch it, but the second his fingers touch the orb, he pulls them back with a gasp and shakes his hand. “It burned me!” 

Rose laughs at the offended look on his face before turning again to the orb, unable to keep her gaze from it for too long. This time, she reaches for the orb and places her hand on its surface, ignoring the Doctor’s squawk of protest.  

In an instant, Rose understands everything. She remembers her time as Bad Wolf, the things she’d done in her past, present, and future. 

_ To always lead her home. Time and time again. _

_ To save the Doctor. By any means necessary. _

_ To save herself from a short human lifespan. To fulfill her promise of forever.  _

_ To bring life. Jack. Oh, Jack. _

Through her bond with the TARDIS, she’d become the Bad Wolf, a powerful entity of Time and Space and the Vortex. The Bad Wolf had seen the future and things to come and had forged a way back for Rose, creating a portal from the other universe to the TARDIS before the impossible became reality. 

Rose pulls back from the orb with a gasp, almost falling on her bum before she’s scooped up by the Doctor from behind. 

“Rose! Rose, are you okay?” He’s shouting, his voice panicked and terrified, but she takes a moment to regain her bearings. 

Blinking a few times, Rose takes a deep, ragged breath, and turns to the Doctor to press her face into his chest. “‘M fine, Doctor. I promise. Was just a lot.” 

“What did it do to you?” the Doctor demands, taking her by the shoulders and looking her over. 

“Nothing! It just… Showed me everything. It showed me Bad Wolf and… everything I did as Bad Wolf… with the TARDIS.” Rose pulls away slightly and frowns at the Doctor. “There’s a lot you didn’t tell me.”

“What do you mean, ‘everything’?” the Doctor asks, clearly ignoring her question.

“Turns out I created the portal, opened up a way before the Time War, but only made it accessible to me.” She eyes the Doctor warily and is moderately pleased when his jaw drops in surprise.

“What?” he asks, voice high pitched.

“‘A way to lead myself here,’” she quotes herself, and the Doctor flinches slightly.

Rose eyes the Doctor. “I also brought Jack back to life… an’ we just left him.” She issues this tidbit of information with an emotionless voice, and the Doctor avoids her gaze. “Don’t think we won’t be talking about this later, Doctor, because  _ we will. _ I forgive you, but we’re going to find Jack. We can’t leave him behind.”

To her relief, the Doctor nods. 

“An’ apparently I’m not quite a normal human anymore.” Rose adds the last fact of the most shocking revelations and waits for the Doctor’s response. 

Just as planned, he repeats his earlier high-pitched squawk. “What?!”

Rose smiles. “Guess I matched my lifespan to yours. I get to make good on my promise of forever, now.” 

While this information is just as much of a surprise to her as it is the Doctor, the fact fills her with unspeakable joy and relief. Her mortality had always been a dark spot in her future with the Doctor. 

The Doctor shoves a hand through his hair and stares at her, eyes wide with thinly veiled alarm. “Rose, do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

She levels him with a trademark Tyler glare. “Yes, Doctor, I do.”

The Doctor looks between Rose and the golden orb. “You and the TARDIS. You cheeky, meddling…” 

Rose’s heart softens and she steps closer to the Doctor, smiling softly as she places a finger on his lips. “I was always supposed to come home.” 

The look on the Doctor’s face is so vulnerable, and the agony from earlier, when she’d first set her gaze upon him when he’d entered the TARDIS after the battle, flits across his face. “But I’ll lose you again, Rose. It’s inevitable. The universe isn’t kind. I always lose them, in one way or another. And you– You’re different than the others.”

Rose steps away from the orb and wraps her arms around the Doctor. “If Bad Wolf brought me back, now, something tells me she’ll always bring me home, no matter what the universe wants. Forever, Doctor. I promised.  _ We _ promised. Believe it. Please.”

The Doctor pulls away and stares into her eyes, and she refuses to break his gaze, willing him to understand. Finally, after what feels like ages, he nods, and a ghost of a smile spreads across his face. Light from the surrounding orbs glitter like diamonds in his eyes, and when he speaks again, his voice is low and deep. 

“Promise?” he asks, and Rose shivers at the intensity in his tone. 

“Yes.” She answers as though she’s committing to a vow.

The Doctor crushes her to his chest, and Rose responds in turn. It’s still hard to believe she’s  _ back, _ as her walk on the bridge had distanced herself somewhat from the initial trauma of being separated from the Doctor. But for him, she realizes, it’s still fresh, and he’s raw around the edges, clinging to her with renewed desperation. 

There will be a time for more adventures later, but right now she wants nothing more to find comfort in his arms. To remind herself that she’s really back and isn’t going anywhere any time soon. 

“I could use a bath,” she says, finally breaking the silence, and wrinkles her nose in disgust. “I can still smell that place on me. Care to join me?”

The Doctor places a soft kiss on her temple. “Always filled with the most brilliant ideas, Rose. Come on. It’ll be good to wash this day away.” 

Rose smiles and takes her hand, leading him out of the room filled with beautiful orbs and potential. Her breath catches in her throat as excitement and hope for the future burns brightly in her heart. 


	4. Content

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The loss of her had been so abrupt and gut wrenching, that the whiplash of her sudden and unexpected return had created a storm of emotions that had simmered barely unchecked under the surface since then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the promised epilogue!! Thank you so much for reading this little story of mine. It was so great to actually create something of some length again. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this last chapter and that it helps to erase the terrible memories of Doomsday!!
> 
> Thanks one last time to Hellostarlight20 for the beta.

The Doctor sighs contently as he holds Rose’s wet, naked body against his chest. A peaceful silence permeates the room around them, which is dimly lighted with flickering candles lining the edge of the bathtub. 

Earlier in the shower, they’d scrubbed away the horrors of the day, soothing shared tears with kisses that had quickly turned heated and frantic. Once clean and sated, they’d found further comfort together in a bath, enjoying the closeness it allows with a calming ambiance provided by their ship. 

His thoughts turn to the events of the previous day, to the nightmares they’d experienced and the fulfillment of a Beast’s predictions. Almost fulfillment, that is. 

No, Rose hadn’t let it win, whatever it was. 

_ Rose.  _ He still can’t quite believe she’s back for good. The loss of her had been so abrupt and gut wrenching, that the whiplash of her sudden and unexpected return had created a storm of emotions that had simmered barely unchecked under the surface since then. 

The Doctor squeezes his arms around her middle in an automatic response to his thoughts, and she nuzzles her nose against his arm. Touching each other as they are, her mind hums happily at the edge of his– not quite a full connection, but not apart, either. He’s not sure if he could endure that again. 

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” he murmurs quietly.

“Hmm?”

He tries to put it into words. “When you first returned and later, when you found the orb and discovered what you’d done as Bad Wolf. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s okay, Doctor,” Rose says, running her fingers up his arm. “I understand why you did.”

“No, it’s not okay. It’s not that I didn’t believe  _ you,” _ he explains. “The universe has never been kind to me. It’s never granted me any favors to make me believe that I deserved anything more than what I received. I– I never wanted you to be a victim of my mistakes, and I felt I had to protect you from all of it.”

Rose is silent for several long moments. “I’m not a victim, Doctor. I chose my path, and I don’t regret a moment of it.  _ You _ didn’t make me come back any time you sent me away.  _ I  _ made that choice. And I’ll do it again, if I have to.” She huffs out a laugh before twisting around to face him. “But that’s  _ not  _ an invitation to send me away. Don’t  _ ever _ do that again.”

“Aye, aye, Cap’n.”

“I’m not joking.”

“I– I’ll do my best. It’s different, now. You’ll be around longer than I imagined,” he says. “And I know you can protect yourself.”

Rose smiles, moving to straddle him, a shift he finds quite distracting. “You believe me.”

Despite Rose’s position, the Doctor is determined to explain his thoughts to her. “I’ve always believed  _ in _ you, Rose, but I never thought to give  _ us _ a real fighting chance. I didn’t trust you fully with my fears and doubts about our future, and look at you– you found a way back to me, to your home with the TARDIS. You didn’t even need me. You’re brilliant, you are.”

Rose’s eyes brighten with emotion, but the corners crinkle in amusement. “Well… if you say so. But I did have  _ some _ help.” She reaches out and pats the wall beside them, and the lights brighten momentarily in the ensuite. 

“Ah, yes, my TARDIS. She’s a bit rebellious.”

Rose laughs. “Oh, you wouldn’t have it any other way.”

No, he thinks to himself as he finally gives in to the arousing distraction of the woman in front of him. 

No, he wouldn’t. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Find me at goingtothetardis.tumblr.com!


End file.
